UD Almería
Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 26 July 1989 and known as Almería Club de Fútbol until 2001, the club plays in Segunda División, and plays their homes games at Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos, with a 15,200-seat capacity.
History
is a team that played in La Liga between 1979–81, but disappeared in 1982, and was arguably UD Almería's predecessor. In 1989, a club named Almería Club de Fútbol was born, but in 2001 was renamed Unión Deportiva Almería. On January 19, 2001 the mayor of Almeria Santiago Martínez Cabrejas announced in the City Council that the new club UD Almería was born after the merge of two city's teams - Polideportivo Almería and Almería CF. But UD Almería was not official until June 28, 2001, when Almeria CF approved at the General Meeting of Shareholders the renaming. After playing one season in the second division, it was relegated to the third and the fourth divisions.After spending several seasons in the second level, Almería side was first promoted to the top flight after finishing runner-up in the 2006–07 season. After some outstanding performances, as the away win against Deportivo de La Coruña 3-0 in the first La Liga match, the team achieved a final 8th league place in 2007–08. At the club's helm was coach Unai Emery, as striker Álvaro Negredo finished team topscorer with 13 goals.
After Emery left for Valencia CF, Gonzalo Arconada stepped in, but was sacked on 21 December 2008, after a string of poor results, albeit without ever reaching the last three. Mexican Hugo Sánchez took the job, and fared slightly better, for a final mid-table position.
In 2010–11, Almería reached the semifinals of the Copa del Rey for the first time ever. In the league, however, the club was finally relegated after a four-year spell in the top flight; in November 2010, coach Juan Manuel Lillo was fired after a 0–8 home loss against FC Barcelona, and his successor José Luis Oltra met the same fate, in April 2011. He was replaced by Roberto Olabe.
After two seasons in the second level, Almería returned to the main category of Spanish football on 22 June 2013, after defeating Girona FC in the play-offs. After the departure of manager Javi Gracia, the club appointed their former player and manager of the reserves at the time Francisco Javier Rodríguez Vílchez; the team eventually managed to survive in 2013–14, finishing 16th.
Francisco was sacked in December 2014, after only managing two points out of 24, and was later replaced by Juan Ignacio Martínez. "JIM" also only lasted until April of the following year, and even with new manager Sergi Barjuán, the club was relegated after finishing 19th.
In the 2018-2019 season, Almería finally escaped the tough fight for the permanence in Segunda División until the last matches as during 3 previous seasons. This time they were closer to the promotion play-offs to La Liga, and finished 10th from 22 teams participated.
On 2 August 2019 Turki Al-Sheikh became the owner of the club, replacing Alfonso García Gabarrón. He named Mohamed El Assy as general director, Dario Drudi as sporting director, who replaced Miguel Ángel Corona, and manager Óscar Fernández was replaced by Pedro Emanuel. On 5 November 2019 at 0:47 it was announced Guti replaced Emanuel. On 26 June 2020 he was ceased and replaced by Mario Silva, who was himself replaced by José Gomes on 27 July.
Season to season
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Reserve teamOut on loanTechnical staffNotable playersNote: this list includes players that have appeared in at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status.Uniform
1 The shirt contained messages such as Isla del Fraile or Corredor de Vida. |